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Author Topic: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Japan - [Image Heavy!]  (Read 80069 times)

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Offline Spoon

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Japan - [Image Heavy!]
Seems like such a waste to stop at 1925, the battleship designs are just starting to get fun!
Urutorahappī!!

[02:42] <@Axem> spoon somethings wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> critically wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> im happy with these missions now
[02:44] <@Axem> well
[02:44] <@Axem> with 2 of them

 

Offline Enioch

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Japan - [Image Heavy!]
Aren't they just? :p

Seriously, I haven't unlocked All-or-nothing armor yet!
'Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent'  -Salvor Hardin, "Foundation"

So don't take a hammer to your computer. ;-)

 

Offline StarSlayer

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Japan - [Image Heavy!]
Are there game settings that throttle the tech advancement or is it more luck of the draw each playthrough?  It seems like the general world progress in this play through is lagging a little behind the real world.   Even by 1920 it didn't appear that any in game nations' battleline could stand up to the quality of ships that the Grand or High Seas Fleets fielded at Jutland.  Nagato slipped the ways with 410 millimeters, fore and aft superfiring turrets and all or nothing in 1919.   
“Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world”

 

Offline Enioch

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Japan - [Image Heavy!]
You can stifle research, but I'm not doing so in this playthough.

This is pure luck of the draw. I demonstrate this in a screenshot later on - I have unlocked literally every other ship design tech, but get AON really late.
'Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent'  -Salvor Hardin, "Foundation"

So don't take a hammer to your computer. ;-)

 

Offline Enioch

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Oyo? Mutsuki desu. Harikitte mairimashou!


Sure, Brits, I guess you can have better pumps. It's not like your torpedo defense systems belong to the lst decade or anything.







In February 1926, a disarmament conference was held in the Hague. The Japanese, with Mikasa finally under construction, were adamant about not being constrained in any way, but agreed to attend. There were a lot of words, as expected, but no concrete action was decided on.



And in April, the R & D department finally produced a hull design for a 15-hundred ton destroyer. Japan could now finally match the French underage boats.



At this point in time, tensions with Russia were rising. Tzar Nikolai II had died of pneumonia in April 1923, with his then-18-year-old son, Alexei ascending the throne. The Russian Empire was racked with internal strife; communism had made considerable headway as an ideology among the populace and anarchist terror attacks were frequent. Russia was looking to affirm her control over her eastern provinces, which led to considerable friction with the Japanese sphere.


Because Russia.

In an attempt to secure their interests, and with the Uchida-Roosevelt Pact about to expire, the Japanese sounded out the British for an Alliance. Sadly, the British adopted a non-commital stance and negotiations bogged down.





Situations were not helped when Hatakaze and Harukaze fired on and sank a French fishing boat during maneuvers. The Admiralty offered its apologies, but nothing else - the training area had been clearly laid out and the French ship was in clear violation of its limits.



An Alliance with the British was beyond what Albion was willing to give, but they decided to extend a friendly hand again in September, when they offered the sale of their superheater designs. The Japanese Admiralty had more than enough funds to acquire the designs.



In December, a crisis erupted in China yet again, with the French, British and Chinese flinging accusations and threats around, with regards to territorial rights in the Vietnamese area. Japan, no longer having the backing of the USA, adopted a conciliatory stance. The ensuing peace conference, held in Formosa, helped ease tensions. It is interesting to note that USA delegates were not invited; the cooling of the American - Japanese relationships was mutual.





1927 started with major breakthroughs in matters of armor development and machinery. Improved reduction gears could now be retrofitted to older ships, improving their endurance considerably; and the R & D department, always seeking ways to improve Japanese ship survivability, introduced the concept of a 'decapping' armor belt, that would help blunt the impact of any heavy APC shells.



And, in February, the Admiralty ordered five revolutionary destroyers: the Special-Type, Mutsuki-class.



These ships immediately rendered all contemporary designs obsolete, including the older French Catapultes. In a 1,500-ton hull, they mounted six of the exceptional Japanese 127mm guns in ABY dual mounts (capable of being elevated to 45 degrees) and the best fire control systems available. Unlike the (now second-rate) Harukazes, they carried no mines, but compensated with a heavier torpedo armament of two quadruple mounts; and could reach a flank speed of 34 knots.

These ships (and their derivatives) would form the backbone of the Japanese destroyer fleet until the end of the 1940s; they were the most successful destroyer design ever produced world-wide, with more than thirty ships of various subclasses produced until 1945. Constant refits and upgrades kept them beyond their competition's reach throughout that time.

{No update tomorrow, because obvious reasons}

« Last Edit: October 01, 2018, 07:26:28 am by Enioch »
'Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent'  -Salvor Hardin, "Foundation"

So don't take a hammer to your computer. ;-)

 

Offline StarSlayer

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Japan - [Image Heavy!]
You've been hanging with the Yankees too much, IJN Cans are supposed to be AXY.  :P
“Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world”

 

Offline Enioch

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Japan - [Image Heavy!]
Akizuki disagrees. :p

Anyway, these babies are meant to pursue, not run away.
'Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent'  -Salvor Hardin, "Foundation"

So don't take a hammer to your computer. ;-)

 

Offline Lorric

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Japan - [Image Heavy!]


Oh she can see what you're trying to do. That's why you look like a little girl who's been caught with her hand inside the cookie jar as she casts her regal gaze upon your soul. :D

 

Offline StarSlayer

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Japan - [Image Heavy!]
Akizuki disagrees. :p

Anyway, these babies are meant to pursue, not run away.

Akizuki is a diminutive anti aircraft CL not a DD  :P

The IJN tried ABY with the Hatsuharus but realized they borked the center of gravity and refitted them into AXY.


“Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world”

 

Offline Droid803

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Japan - [Image Heavy!]
Akizuki is ABXY anyway. She has four turrets.
(´・ω・`)
=============================================================

 

Offline Enioch

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Japan - [Image Heavy!]
It should, theoretically, be possible to set up an Akizuki analogue with endgame tech. 8 4-inchers? Yeah, should be possible. Hmmm... (takes notes for next playthrough)

That image with the two hatsus is so kawai... :P
'Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent'  -Salvor Hardin, "Foundation"

So don't take a hammer to your computer. ;-)

 

Offline Enioch

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In November 1927, the death of the Emperor shook Japan, bringing the end of the Shouwa period to its end. The transfer of power went relatively smoothly, given that Prince Regent Hirohito had already shouldered most of the responsibilities of his increasingly invalid father. The new Emperor promised a new period of Japanese supremacy in the Far East and was a vocal supporter of tightening the Alliance's control over the Indian Ocean. The Navy did not experience any particular upheaval at the time.





By the beginning of the next year, Military Intelligence scored major successes, in securing the blueprints of the new German and Russian battlecruisers. While the Germans had gone for a 'classic' 15-inch design, the Russians were clearly taking notes from Japan's design book. Their Rymnik-class was a 48k-ton beast, with an 8-16'' gun battery and a speed to match the (now severely undergunned and increasingly obsolescent) Fuso. With Mikasa less than five months from completion, the Admiralty was not particularly concerned - but it became clear that the Japanese Battlecruiser fleet was in urgent need of modernisation.



This time the Japanese Navy was in no mood for half-measures, or for a white elephant ship. With the full support of the Emperor, the Navy League and the Ministry of Finance, a plan was drawn for a testbed battlecruiser design that would launch a class of at least four ships in total.



The Hiei was flimsy in comparison to her Russian big brother (with a 9'' belt and only 10'' turret armor) but she was a monster in her own right. She bore a 9-16'' battery, the same fire control suites and torpedo protection systems in use on the Mikasa and, most importantly, she rendered every single cruiser in the world obsolete overnight, with her insane top speed of 32 knots.

The concept of the ship was simple. She was a cruiser and battle-cruiser killer. For those purposes, armor beyond that needed to protect her from cruiser-caliber weapons was irrelevant; any capital ship she was likely to encounter, she could outspot and outrun.

Her keel was laid in the same slipway the Mikasa left, on May 1928. And similar slipways were readied in other major Japanese shipyards, in preparation for her sisters.







Of course, Japan wouldn't be Japan if its R & D department didn't submit revolutionary designs the moment a new expensive ship was laid down. As soon as the Hiei's keel was completed, the Tsingtaou yards submitted a proposal for a groundbreaking new armour scheme: what they called 'all or nothing' armor.

The concept was simple. Armor the parts of the ship that were vital to its functioning as much as possible. Build a 'citadel' box, capable of keeping the ship afloat. And leave everything non-essential outside of this 'box', with no armor whatsoever. Provided the citadel wasn't penetrated (and the concentrated armor would ensure it wasn't), the ship would remain combat-worthy.

No viable designs were produced at the time and it was decided that the Hiei would be completed as she had been designed. But her sisters would not be built before this new system was ironed out.



In September, something extraordinary took place.

Wilhelm II, the German Kaiser had been assassinated in January, in Bonn, by Augustus Martzloff, a 24-year-old Alsatian student. Germany had been stunned by the event and, although no link could be drawn
between the assassin and France's government, his own descent from one of the most contested areas in the Old World had ratcheted up tensions considerably. The Germans were looking for allies and the new Kaiser (Wilhelm III) broke with the mold of his father and sought out a military pact with the Japanese.

The Japanese were not particularly averse to that. The British had shown that they were not willing to commit to any long-term alliance; the Americans had retreated back to their continent and the old days of 'Roosevelt-ojii-san' were gone; and the wars of the past were...well, in the past. Japan was still not ecstatic about Germany still holding on to her Far East possessions (especially Java) but that could be tolerated, in the interest of having a friend in Europe.





Especially since the French were also building big battlecruisers (although slower than Hiei), and had also, apparently, developed their own version of ITMS-based fire control.



In April, the R & D department delivered a viable design for AoN armor. They were very much praised for the fact that they had taken into account the plans for the Hiei and produced a structural blueprints that could, conceivably, be used to adapt the ship's design, instead of starting from scratch. While the Hiei itself could not be rebuilt with this armor scheme, her sisters would be fully AoN, with no compromise on her speed or other aspects.

But first, the IJN designers tried their hands at something...bigger.





The Musashi was considered by many to be the pinnacle of IJN capital ship engineering. Bigger ships would be built in the future, but the Musashi took all the lessons learned from building the Mikasa, added AoN armor and produced a ship that was smaller, faster and in every respect better than her older sister. There was nothing in the world that could conceivably match her in her intended role. Future US President F. D. Roosevelt would call her the 'Big Stick' of the Pacific in his withering criticism of the Republican policies in the West and it was easy to see why.



In September 1929, with Hiei less than a year from completion, colonial tensions nearly boiled over once again in the Vietnam area. Fuso and Nagato were deployed to deal with the situation. While the operation was a success, it highlighted several problems with Fuso's ageing machinery. The old girl was getting to be rather long in the tooth - not to mention the poor Tsukuba - the longest-serving warship in the world. In a bid to reduce maintenance costs and economise resources for the building of the new battle-line, the Admiralty authorised the decommissioning and scrapping of the two ships.



The ceremony was completed in December, with both ships finally stricken from the naval register. The ships were sailed to Kure under their own power and scrapped, with some of the steel re-used for the construction of Hiei.



Unfortunately, the situation in Vietnam quickly deteriorated once again. Japan was very much a spectator in a colonial posturing war between Great Britain and France; at the time it was considered a very real possibility that the British would take a more active approach in securing their interests in the region. The good relations between Japan and the British had been very much dependent on Britain acknowledging Japan's authority in the South China Sea; with that, now, in flux, the Japanese Parliament authorised a considerable increase in the Naval budget, which was very welcome indeed.



And tensions were slightly reduced when, after the prompting of Britain, the Japanese hosted yet another international peace conference. The tensions between the two European rivals were not eased, but at least Japan got Britain to acknowledge that the preservation of the status quo in the Anglo-Japanese relations would be to the benefit of both Powers.





With the new increased budget, the Admiralty laid down two cruisers of a new, experimental class: the Takaos. They were Japan's first attempt to employ AoN armor in a cruiser hull, could reach 33 knots, bore a downscaled torpedo protection system comparable to that found in Japanese dreadnoughts and mounted a fearsome 15-gun broadside of the Japanese 6-inchers. Originally, they were conceived as light-cruiser killers; but, they had been designed in such a way as to allow the replacement of their turrets with dual 8-inchers. Their performance in war games would later show that the latter armament was preferrable and their upgunning would take place further down the line.





And then, on the 12th of September 1930, with Hiei less than a month from completion, the Japanese Emperor, his wife, Princess Nagako, and his brother, Prince Yasuhito, were killed in an anarchist bombing attack, on a visit to Hong Kong. The English authorities agreed to collaborate with the irate Japanese; their findings revealed that the perpetrators were a local anarchist cell, the 'Black Chain'. An evidence trail was followed; it was determined that they had received support, information and supplies from France.

And that, as they say, was that. An Emperor had been assassinated, for the first time in over a thousand years.

Japan raged.

'Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent'  -Salvor Hardin, "Foundation"

So don't take a hammer to your computer. ;-)

 

Offline Spoon

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Japan - [Image Heavy!]
Avenge the emperor! To war with the heretically snail eaters! Death to the fromage!


Interesting and unexpected that there will be German help this time around.
Urutorahappī!!

[02:42] <@Axem> spoon somethings wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> critically wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> im happy with these missions now
[02:44] <@Axem> well
[02:44] <@Axem> with 2 of them

 
Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Japan - [Image Heavy!]
If you can't beat them...

 

Offline Enioch

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Emperor Nobuhito and King Vittorio Emmanuele III of Italy.

The new Emperor was Prince Nobuhito; inexperienced with regards to the administration of the nation but with a thorough background in the runnings of the navy. He had served as an officer in the Navy and had risen to the rank of Captain; he had even spent two years as the commanding officer of the cruiser Yoshino. He was a personal friend to F.D. Roosevelt, having been introduced to him since before the Uchida-Roosevelt Pact, and a firm supporter of the re-establishment of the USA-Japanese relations. For now, however, he had a war to deal with, something for which he was uniquely qualified among the sons of the late Emperor Taishou.

A war that would be like no other. For circumstances were truly exceptional:

For one thing, the war could not have come at a worse time for the Japanese 'Maru boys'. The old minesweeper fleet was falling apart, not having been maintained to the proscribed levels during the final years of Hirohito's reign - funds had been shifted to capital ship production, leaving most of the minesweepers rotting in their moorings. Upon inspecting the navy, the new Emperor was horrified to discover this situation; he ordered all of the remaining derelicts to be scrapped for a pittance and initiated construction of a larger class of modern minesweepers for the 'Maru boys'. The earliest estimates would have the new ships leaving the slipways in ten months; until that time, the second-rate Harukazes would take over ASW and Coastal patrol duties. Their mine rails (easily adaptable to depth charge munitions) would serve them well in this regard.

Furthermore, Japan had a greatly diminished battle-line, in number of hulls at least, compared to France. But Japan also had a massive and modern submarine fleet, that, with German support, could operate off German bases in Europe. The Silent Service received their orders, and its fourty subs left their moorings and headed for shipping lanes and enemy harbors like hungry sharks. For the first time in history, submarine wolfpacks went on the prowl.







And did they ever earn their spurs. In the opening two months of the war, the Japanese submariners sent to the bottom two enemy minesweepers; a staggering quarter-million tons of merchant shipping were sunk. Even more spectacularly, Captain Biobaku of I-69 nailed a pursuing destroyer with a torpedo off the coast of Normandy. In exchange, the Japanese lost four submarines; a much lesser blow than what one would expect for such gains.



The savagery of the submarine attacks stunned the French Navy and sent the Marine Nationale ships scuttling back to their harbors. The Kriegsmarine pounced and used their capital ships to establish a blockade of the French ports; maritime traffic to and from France ground to a halt.



The Harukaze minelayers claimed their own indirect victim in January, when a French destroyer was lost in the Indian Ocean...



... and the Army started planning a massive assault against France's African holdings. The prize was thought to be Djibouti: the major French port in the southern end of the Red Sea. If that French colony could be conquered, France would lose her last resupply base in the Indian Ocean and Japan would gain a considerable degree of control over the traffic in the Red Sea.



The Silent Service continued to make Japan proud. The German blockade meant that no merchant ships left the French Atlantic ports; but their minesweepers and destroyers were still out on patrols and it is on these ships that the submarines now turned their attention. Another minesweeper and the destroyer Durandal were sunk off St Nazaire.



Unfortunately, by March, the initial shock of the submarine attacks had worn off and the French were gearing for a counterattack. A forey of French submarines gutted the convoy S-23, ferrying supplies from Sumatra to Madagascar; and Japanese submarine attacks on French ships in the Mediterranean were successful, but suffered heavy losses. Yet the Silent Service would still have the final word: on the 23rd of March, the Japanese submarine I-71 entered the port of Toulon almost casually during the dusk hours; sailed up to the moored French Battlecruiser St Louis and scored two torpedo hits on her, from a distance of under 300 yards. The French ship went down in less than ten minutes but was successfully raised and repaired in five months; I-71 made good her escape, with her crew and Captain being hailed as heroes.







All was not good for the Japanese, however. The lack of dedicated minesweepers was tying down a large number of destroyers and that, in turn, was severely impacting the viability of the convoy routes in the Pacific. French subs and raiders operating from China could strike at Japanese shipping as far as Polynesia; not having enough ships for escort duty, the Japanese Admiralty had to cancel several supply convoys to the Marianas. The local populations had to endure considerable hardship during the time as necessary supplies never reached their destinations.



However, the Silent Service would not be deterred. In an almost comical repeat of I-71's achievement, Captain Iwaki of the I-64 led his boat on a raid to Brest, where he found the two French Dreadnoughts Richelieu and Temeraire at anchor. He fired the entirey of his torpedo complement at the latter of the two targets and scored three hits; the Temeraire was only saved because the deck officer at the time ordered controlled counterflooding and called for tugboats to beach her on a nearby sandbank. The ship would stay out of commission for half a year.



Unfortunately, the Army could not report similar success. Having put the Djibouti invasion on the backburner, the Japanese had to deal with several guerilla incursions of the French forces in their China holdings. A blood stalemate ensued, different yet no less horrifying than the trench warfare of earlier wars.



And in May, seven months into the war, the French submariners scored their first major success of the war. The Chishima, the oldest surviving ship of the Itsukushima class was torpedoed and sunk off the coast of Kamerun, in a heart-rending repeat of her sister's death.





This spurred the Japanese to focus even harder on their light forces. The new minesweepers were complete and working up, the 'Maru boys' ecstatic at their new toys; the Admiralty immediately ordered four more Mutsuki-class destroyers.



In June, the Japanese subs pulled back to friendly bases to resupply and repair, allowing the French a three-week lull. The French submariners poked, hesitantly, and scored almost thirty thousand tons in merchant tonnage sunk; then they got slapped down hard by the patrolling Harukazes.



And then the Silent Service pushed back, hard; I-59 and I-74, operating jointly from Heligoland nailed two French destroyers that were patrolling the coast of Brittany.





And the 'Maru boys' finally reported their readiness to resume their duties and swarmed out of the Japanese anchorages, to relieve the Harukaze crews.



A year in and, despite attrition heavily favouring the Japanese, no noticeable progress was taking place. The French probed for a compromise peace, but only received a vehement response. This was not a posturing war, like the ones before - the Japanese were out for blood.





The Silent Service provided an eloquent punctuation for the Japanese official stance, by smashing two more French minesweepers and an armed merchant cruiser to kindling, inside the harbor of French Congo.





And finally, there were enough light forces available to dispatch a convoy to the Alliance's much-suffering Pacific holdings. In a clear statement of how important the Japanese considered these territories, the Admiralty dispatched a task force of three destroyers and Hiei itself as escorts to the convoy S-30.



At 09:30, on the 7th of October, and while scouting ahead of the convoy, the Hiei's ITMS spotted two ships closing in from the east; the signatures corresponded to light cruisers or destroyers.



 Captain Yamamoto orders the main battery guns to open fire under ITMS guidance; Hiei fires her first shot in anger from a range of around 18,000 yards. After a few corrections, her second salvo follows up, two minutes later. Her lookouts report an explosion on the second enemy ship and the bridge of the Hiei erupts in cheers.





Encouraged by this success, Yamamoto orders full pursuit. Hiei accellerates to her flank of 32 knots and turns toward the enemy, still keeping six of her nine 16-inchers pointed at the contacts. At close range, her lookouts identify the targets: a Forbin-class raider and a Balliste-class escorting destroyer: a development on the older Catapulte-class. Nothing that could threaten the Japanese behemoth.



Hiei turns to bear North and unshadows her entire broadside. She proceeds to absolutely savage the enemy ships. To add insult to injury, Yamamoto asks his targeting crews to test the ITMS systems further under combat conditions: he assigns the rapidly retreating Balliste as a target and leaves the foundering Forbin to Hiei's secondaries.

Hiei's main batteries traverse; the ITMS reports that a targeting solution has been achieved; and, at 10,000 yards, the Balliste is literally blown out of the water, under the impact of three superheavy High-Explosive shells. There were no survivors.



The Hiei turns lazily to the South, to inspect the wreck; her main batteries train to take the Forbin under fire. Two shells strike the French ship under the waterline and instantly snap her spine. Hiei's destroyer escort pick up a few dozen survivors.




HON HON HON, BAGUETTES.
« Last Edit: September 02, 2018, 04:03:43 am by Enioch »
'Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent'  -Salvor Hardin, "Foundation"

So don't take a hammer to your computer. ;-)

 

Offline Spoon

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Japan - [Image Heavy!]
Holy poo poo, a war of submarines and torpedoes
And Hiei absolutely wrecking face.
Urutorahappī!!

[02:42] <@Axem> spoon somethings wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> critically wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> im happy with these missions now
[02:44] <@Axem> well
[02:44] <@Axem> with 2 of them

 

Offline StarSlayer

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Japan - [Image Heavy!]
Out of curiosity how long can you prolong a war?  I notice the diplomats occasionally ask your opinion about peace initiatives but how much do your suggestions effect their decision making?  Will they overrule you and make a settlement even if you are looking to continue operations?


Let's face it if the Emperor and his family were actually assassinated in a French mandated operation nothing short of the complete annihilation of the French Fleet and their colonial holdings would be acceptable to the Empire.  They would probably pursue a conflict beyond what is feasible for their capacity to support.  It would be a little funny if the Baguettes were let off with the hook because the game's diplomatic system figured it was okay for a White Peace.

 
“Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world”

 

Offline Lorric

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Japan - [Image Heavy!]
Of course Enioch's Japan is radically different to the real one, but it made me think of what WW2 era Japan would have done under the same circumstances, who were already very brutal. I could see them going Minbari on the country that did it. Extermination or enslavement of the whole population.

 

Offline Enioch

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Japan - [Image Heavy!]
Out of curiosity how long can you prolong a war?  I notice the diplomats occasionally ask your opinion about peace initiatives but how much do your suggestions effect their decision making?  Will they overrule you and make a settlement even if you are looking to continue operations?

Let's face it if the Emperor and his family were actually assassinated in a French mandated operation nothing short of the complete annihilation of the French Fleet and their colonial holdings would be acceptable to the Empire.  They would probably pursue a conflict beyond what is feasible for their capacity to support.  It would be a little funny if the Baguettes were let off with the hook because the game's diplomatic system figured it was okay for a White Peace.
 

If given the option, and especially since I had the Germans pinning the French Fleet in their harbours, I would have continued this war until the absolute collapse of the French government.

Which is a real possibility, if (through blockades and ship sinkings) you up the enemy's unrest to 10. This immediately qualifies you for massive colonial takeovers and you can also claim one or more ships of their navy as war prizes. I. e. the enemy unconditionally surrenders.

Unfortunately, the politicians don't listen (which is realistic, given that you're an Admiral and you have no actual political say-so). Remember how the first Franco-Japanese war ended? Back in the start of the game? With me having like 10 times the enemy's VP and getting a white peace?

Yeeeeeah.... :nervous:

Also: Japan is allied with the Germans. It's not just my politicians calling the shots here.
'Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent'  -Salvor Hardin, "Foundation"

So don't take a hammer to your computer. ;-)

 

Offline Enioch

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With the Polynesian holdings resupplied and the Pacific somewhat safe, Japan moved to close yet another front: that of Southern China. Occupying the entirety of the French holdings there would be near-impossible to achieve, given the defense-in-depth and the guerilla tactics the French were employing; but the Army HQ suggested a concentrated push to clear French fortified positions and, more importantly, supply centres, thus limiting the enemy's mobility. Funds were allocated and the Japanese Battle-line took positions to support the Japanese advance with coastal bombardments. Meanwhile, the Djibouti campaign was being planned backstage, to a degree never before seen in modern warfare.



The R & D department wasn't idle, either. Having studied reports of how the French saved their stricken capital ships, they proposed further improvements (quite counter-intuitive ones) to the Japanese damage control doctrine. While letting more water into a stricken ship might be considered crazy, given the heavy compartmentalisation of the Japanese ships, such a tactic might reduce listing and be the deciding factor in saving a ship that would otherwise have been lost to capsizing.



In November, another French minesweeper was sent to the bottom; fully embarrassed by the Japanese successes, at this point, the French submariners tried to step up their game. In a patrol off Formosa, the French sub Barberousse engaged the Japanese minesweeper Kongo Maru; both crews gave as good as they got, but the French emerged victorious.

And then they got a bit too ambitious.





On the 14th of November, a day of infamy for the French Navy, the submarine Corsaire torpedoed and sank the Canadian liner Empress of Japan on her regular trans-pacific route. The French maintained that the liner was carrying American munitions in support of the Japanese and that she had been sailing with her lights off, in contravention of the established rules for neutrals; the Japanese and American governments and the Canadian Pacific Steamships Company vehemently denied the ammunition accusations and presented survivor testimonies in support of the Empress' adherence to the rules of war.

The debate raged although evidence seemed not to favour the French; the attack was presented world-wide as an atrocity and severely impacted the image of the French in the international scene. Sympathy for the Japanese cause skyrocketed.   



The French, seeing a continuation of submarine warfare as untenable under the circumstances, reverted to the tried-and-tested methods of surface raiding and dispatched armed merchant cruisers and light raiders to strike at Japanese shipping. Unfortunately, most of these ships had either been held in mothballs or deployed far from resupply stations. Two of her raiders, Tage and Forbin were interned in Manila a few weeks into their first patrols, the former because a frantic sprint to evade Hiei left her without the fuel to reach a French port and the second because two of her boilers exploded mid-cruise due to lack of maintenance.



Encouraged by their allies' successes and their enemies' misfortune, the Germans reinforced their blockade. This, once again, slowed French merchant traffic to a standstill.





Literally the best guns in the game (don't talk to me about 18-inchers, they only come in -1 varieties). And they're mine. Ahehehehehe. Kongou-imouto will be so powerful[/Hiei]



Desperate to somehow counter the Japanese submarines, the French proceeded to employ Q-ships for the first time in world history. The French armed merchantman Herault, under the command of Commandant de Vaisseau Michel Peri, successfully lured the submarine I-74 to the surface and sank her with her concealed armament. At this point, the Japanese would have been justified in declaring unrestricted submarine warfare, but the sinking of the Empress of Japan was still fresh in peoples' minds. The Admiralty feared that doing so might waste all the goodwill Japan had garnered in the international community. Japanese subs were instructed to continue to operate under Prize rules.



Spirits soared in January, when little Matsukaze managed to reach a Japanese harbour despite being torpedoed by a French submarine. Four months in dockyard hands would have her in fighting shape again; her crew were praised as heroes for saving their ship under the circumstances.







Well, at least we're still leading in subm-

Wait.







HOLY ****, SPAGHETTIS, I'M SO GLAD WE'RE FRIENDS.



"Ahahaha," said everybody in Japan, "no".



"Ahahaha," said the crew of the I-62, "those French! What jokers! Let's torpedo their other dreadnought in its harbor."



Finally, in February, success! The French guerillas were soundly beaten back and their supplky chains disrupted; the Army felt confident about initiating the Djibouti landings as soon as the Navy secured the Indian Ocean to their satisfaction.





The Navy did not feel confident to do so, still trying to adapt to the changes in the submarine front. On the 10th of March, I-63 was lost with all hands in the Northern Atlantic, with Herault claiming another victim. Commandant Peri was quickly becoming a hero among the French populace. Spurred on by his success, the French submariners sallied forth and sunk two Japanese merchantmen in the South China Sea, only to lose one of their number in return.



And in May, Peri did it bloody again, sending the I-49 to the bottom with all hands.



Yes, please







No, France. Please stop asking. Everytime you do, my submariners get riled up and it's hard for me to-



There you see? Look what you've done.



You know, this could go on and on. It's really hard to rein them-



Wait. What?



Hold on, hold on, I know that submarine name.

Holy crap, it's the I-64! The same submarine that torped the Temeraire in harbor. Captain Iwaki, you magnificent bastard!
« Last Edit: September 02, 2018, 04:10:06 am by Enioch »
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